i:he HIGHLANDS of SCOTLAND. 25 



fl:ru<5ted for the accommodation of mercantile fleets *, and mo- 

 ney coined for the medium of trade. The coinage of Cuno- 

 BELiNE, the fucceflbr of Cassibelanus, and Sovereign of the 

 Caflii and Trinobantes, from the mints of Colchefter, Verulam 

 and London, is a proof, not only of an extenfive commerce, 

 but of very confiderable advancement in the arts f . 



In this interval, therefoi'e, betv^reen the invafion of C^SAR 

 and the reign of Claudius, this period of rapid improvement, 

 it is probable the Britons of the fouth firft learned the art of 

 conftrudling durable buildings with mortar; though we do not 

 find from any claflic author, that, before the reign of Nero, 

 the Romans had eredled any buildings in the ifland which 

 could ferve as a model of regular architecture . In the fifth 

 year of the Emperor Nero happened that fignal defeat of the 

 Romans by the Britifh Queen Boadicea, occafioned princi- 

 pally by the revolt, or, as Tacitus terms it, the rebellion of 

 the Trinobantes. One great caufe of this revolt had been the 

 eredlion of a magnificent Temple to the divine Claudius, 

 which the Britons regarded as an infulting monument of the 

 Roman power and their own abjedl flavery. " Ad hsc tem- 

 " plum divo Cl audio conftitutum, quafi arx seternae domina- 

 " tionis afpiciebatur ; deledlique facerdotes, fpecie religionis, 

 " omnes fortunas efiiindebant." Tacit. Annal. lib. 14. cap. 31. 

 That this temple was a flrudlure of great magnitude and foli- 

 dity, appears from this circumftance, that the Romans retreat- 

 ed to it as their laft ftrong hold, and, for two days, defended 

 themfelves in it againft the befieging Britons. " Cetera qui- 

 " dem impetu direpta aut incenfa funt ; Templum in quo mi- 

 VoL. II. D " les 



* See an accurate account of the commencement of the commerce of Britain in 

 Whitaker's Hiftory of iVlanchefter, book I. chap. 1 1. 



f About fifty coins of Cunobeline have come down to the prefent times. They are 

 of gold, of filver and of brafs ; and fome of them are elegant in their fabric and de- 

 vice. 



